Who is your Favorite Historical Conductor?

@lowrider57 

I have the M&A  1944 Eroica.  This was actually my first introduction to B3, albeit on a budget lp that my older sister bought in 1972.  That recording imprinted me; every other recording of the piece has never seemed as Life and Death as this one.

  I did play a bit of the M&A after the last time that I listened to Pristine, and the differences weren't as significant as I thought they would be.  The Pristine is preferable but I think the Fanfare reviews the Pristine regularly uses on their website doth protest a bit to much.

  I actually bought the Pristine Digital Collection, and subscribe to the streaming service.  If you do the latter then you get free downloads.  The only problem with the streaming service is it doesn't work with most of the players that play Qobuz,Tidal, etc.  You either need a computer or listen from a mobile device on the Pristine site.  I use Chromecast from my phone to my Cambridge Audio streamer.

At any rate if you do the streaming service and download from their site once a month you basically have it for free, and there are enough recordings on the PA site to make it worthwhile, imo.

   Speaking of Pristine Audio and wartime recordings from the Third Reich, I listened to the Walter Gieseking Beethoven Emperor recording from 1944 that was made in stereo.  I had heard it previously when it was released, and aural memory is unreliable but the Pristine recording sounds amazing.  btw there is a brief audible burst of antiaircraft fire  

Maghister -- I’ve never come across the notion that "Music Commands Time," not the reverse. Absolutely revelatory.

@lowrider57 Yeah, that Pristine Furtwangler certainly comes with a hefty price. About the Tape to Tape website, I have doubts that a hard copy, gold plated CD will sound equal to the DSD download as the gold CD isn’t an SACD. Some folks will say that DSD is just a shell unless it was recorded in DSD but my ears seem to tell me different, maybe it’s the filtering but who knows? I haven’t done so yet but I’m going to purchase a DSD 128 download from Tape to Tape and post my impression.

@goofyfoot 

I've read a lot about using DSD in the mastering process and have read the reviews. The result seems to be a very high quality product, even when cut to vinyl. Regarding HDTT, these remasters are starting with presumably good quality tape transfers and will remain in the DSD domain. I expect the downloads to be of high quality and the Redbook discs to exceed the quality of the record label releases.

I could try a download to my computer, then use a thumb drive to play back through my Bluesound. My DAC is limited to 24/96, but this might be a good way to go for me.

@lowrider57 Well regardless of the type of download you purchase, I would guess that it would still be better than waiting for a package to ship from Canada (that is if you live in the US). But I agree that based on the information, even a standard Redbook CD from this source is very promising. My own personal preferences would opt for a 24/96 file over a 24/44.1 Yeah, I've stored files on a flash drive, maybe not ideal but pretty simple nonetheless. As for my purchase, I'm still looking at the catalogue.